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Dell Inspiron 1525 Notebook

01-13-2009, 09:30 AM

Phoronix: Dell Inspiron 1525 Notebook

As we shared last month, at Phoronix we will begin delivering reviews of retail netbooks and notebooks with all testing (of course) being done under Linux. Earlier this month we looked at the Samsung NC10 Netbook and are in the process of working on a few other reviews currently, but in this review we are looking at Dell's Inspiron 1525 notebook.

Bought a Dell Studio 15 (very similiar to this model) with Ubuntu 8.04 32-bit installed on it -- aside from a few messy configurations (audio wasn't configured out of the box to use the keyboard controls, etc.), it's been working wonderfully.

The camera works with Cheese just fine, too, though that could be because I'm using 32-bit.

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Given that you could have bought an Inspiron 1525N notebook with Ubuntu pre-installed, why did you waste money on a Windows Vista license? I'm all for boycotting Microsoft, especially in this case when there's a cheaper Linux version of the exact same hardware.

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Yeah, why didn't you get an Inspiron 1525n? That's the one my mom got. I got the Inspiron 1420n.

"The Linux compatibility of the Dell Inspiron 1525 was also great aside from the web-camera with a uvcvideo driver issue we experienced with Cheese, but that is not specific to this Dell notebook. However, all core functionality of the notebook worked as expected with Ubuntu 8.10."

Yep. So the webcams in our family should start working with the -11 kernel in 8.10, but the current kernel is -9....
I happen to consider a webcam 'core functionality', but that may have something to do with the fact that I paid $30 for it.

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That article has disappointed me so much that i had to register.
I have 2 major grunts towards phoronix:

1) why did you payed Windows Tax ? and more important: why the hell you didn't get refund ?
it's so painfull subject for most of us... and what a bad example do you do.

2) you have did laptop review of "Dell"-brand and ~75% of it is performance test of "Intel" chips...

you know, if i wanted to know performance of intel chips i would look at performance tests of intel chips. especially it's irritating after myriad of "that-new-fancy-intel-toy" articles. i mean, intel _is_ giant billionere corporation, they usually have some tendency to do new and interesting stuff... sometimes but that's not the point of this review at any way.

so, if you are talking about Dell's work - then talk about dell's work.
but what have they did ? computational chips ? no ! circuitry ? i doubt about it. Maybe they ASSEMBLED the damn thing ?

Then why we see nothing about assembly ? something about quality of chosen materials, screws and clips, bios and acpi, cooling and durability, in-box battery and prices for not-so-dull ones ?

PS: my apology if i being too harsh and sorry for bad english but performance is defenetely not №1 problem for mobile computers nor as for gnu/linux
the whole thing looks like one of your friends bought it and you just decided to run your testing software and write an article.

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PS: my apology if i being too harsh and sorry for bad english but performance is defenetely not №1 problem for mobile computers nor as for gnu/linux
the whole thing looks like one of your friends bought it and you just decided to run your testing software and write an article.

a) Phoronix will never be able to compare exactly the things that everyone wants compared, but there's nothing wrong with voicing those wants.

b) Intel vs. Intel? Perhaps that's what you'd like to see compared, but they are comparing one notebook against another, and IMO that's much more useful, unless you want to get an Intel chipset but are trying to decide between them. Again, can't please everyone, but I think comparing one laptop against another is a great idea myself. To make it more useful though the prices should be similar so it'd be more of a comparison of brand vs. brand.

c) Yeah, it does come off as they just randomly chose a laptop, but you must be new here, that's how most things are done here. There doesn't seem to be a particular reason for choosing the hardware they do to review, but at the same time, you have to start somewhere. It's just that I'm not sure where they are trying to start.

Lowest price per performance, would be one good place to start, but also making sure it's Linux-compatible is at the top of my list too even above price, and that's usually what they...seemingly try to focus on. ^^

I think they just choose whatever hardware they think looks cool, like most computer users do, and whatever companies give 'em a bribe to review their free stuff which they hopefully critique fairly.

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Why get a Studio 15 over the other ones mentioned? Because it has newer hardware? Maybe they want their components not to run as hot and a better wireless signal?

I've seen a Studio 15 up close. It looks like a nicer design than the Inspiron.

I would like a Centrino 2 laptop, preferably LED screen with high res and DDR3 RAM (not many with all these but there's some). Any chance of Phoronix testing/reviewing such machines?

I think most will run Linux just fine. It's all about the components: have Intel wireless 5000-models, Nvidia and ATI mobility chips are probably close enough regarding issues to desktop driver issues and then the other issues are mainly the webcam and other laptop-specific functions. That's my theory and I'm sticking to it!

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Hopefully I've posted this in the correct place. Basically, I'm thinking of getting a new laptop soon and I'm looking for some advice/help. Also, I don't want to spend a fortune, but at the same time, don't want to scrimp scrape because I want the laptop to last quite a while; so I want best value for money more or less.

I have a VAIO atm, have had it for just over two years now and can probably hold onto it for a bit longer, but it is starting to become a bit slow and even crashing at times...i actually got the dreaded 'blue screen' not long ago!!
So yeah, I was thinking of getting another VAIO or even HP or somethign like that, but since looking into Dell's offers, it seems that majority of the time with VAIO's etc you are paying for the brand and style, not so much substance...if that makes sense.

So, I have my eye on the new Dell Inspiron 1525...but, I'm just not 100%...a lot of my firends are like "oh, a Dell..." lol, but I don't see what's so wrong with them, they seem to offer extremely good value for money!! Is there something shifty im missing about them? lol
ANyways, so, if someone who really knows their comps (which im presuming is most people here :P ) could take a look at the specs of this one and let me know their honest opinion, it would be greatly appreciated.
Also, I would be using intensively everyday for uni and general personal use. I'm constantly word processing, surfing the net etc etc...very rarely would i use it to play games tho...I more want it to be able do things quickly and smoothly and multitask...so yeh, would this specific Dell suit such things??

Are there any upgrades to the particular model people think i should look into?

And one final thing, i notice that when it talks about RAM...it says shared with graphics...what does this mean? and is it a good/bad thing?